Good morning from Greenwich, Connecticut. Yes, you heard that right. I came back to the East coast to touch base, take care of some personal business, and to completely let my hair down. It’s funny – I was so looking forward to having all this time to get so much done, but given the housekeepers were coming where I’m staying, my morning time was interrupted. I brought everything with me to go to the library to get things done but once I left the house I lost my mojo. So, I decided to follow my own advice to leave myself alone and go with plan B.

Plan B was to enjoy the sunshine, to take myself out to lunch and simply to allow myself some time and space to think about what I’ve learned and noticed so far. Week 8 of 5 months starts on Monday and I thought I’d share some of the things that came up for me.  I think I’d start with the importance of tuning into what I feel and what I’m desiring, and to tune out the shoulds, the coulds and the fear of not having a good story to tell.That is something I struggle with a lot. I feel like I have, to have something interesting and fun to say about what I’m doing. Sometimes that’s an impetus to push myself and sometimes it’s simply a burden. This is a personal process and a personal journey, and I don’t have to report to anyone yet oftentimes, if I’m honest, I have that feeling that I won’t have anything interesting and fun to share.

Another thing I was thinking about yesterday is that being uncomfortable sparks an awful lot of appreciation and gratitude for the little things in life – nice sheets, a comfortable bed, good coffee, a good conversation with a stranger, an itinerary change that works out perfectly. The list is long of the things I’ve been appreciating lately.

Another thing that I’ve been thinking about for days now is that grounding practices are critically important, especially when you’re moving around as much as I am. I’ve maintained my morning meditation, but I haven’t been writing, and creating that expansive time in the morning. It’s the quiet that brings me clarity and I’ve been missing that.

Another thing I was thinking about is that changing my mind often is a good idea. My best friend Marion has been well trained and she says I know you don’t know yet and I know you might change your mind. So yeah, I’m really giving myself permission to wait until I get either an intuitive hit, a desire for something or some clarity. When I was staying with my cousin, Carla, she was teasing me that I kept saying, I’ll figure it out. I’ll figure it out. My mantra these days is a play on that expression strong opinions lightly held. It’s good ideas lightly held because I’m changing my mind a lot.

The last thing I would say is something I mentioned on a recent episode, It’s this ongoing dance with balancing or navigating the desire to retreat and to have quiet and the desire and need for connection and connected quality conversation. I have to say I don’t think that’s unique to my situation –  this moving around that I’m doing for five months. I think that’s something that we’re all always going to face.

Today’s episode came out late because I’m struggling with keeping up, quite frankly. I’ll admit there are days when I ask myself what am I doing? I even said to my brother when we were together in Chicago I’m not quite sure why I’m doing this some days.At the same time, I’m building a website and making plans for the future. So, yeah, it’s a dance. It’s an ongoing dance.

I’m going to share two podcast episodes that I listened to over the past couple of weeks that have really inspired me to keep going. Even when I sometimes don’t know quite what I’m doing here. The first one is an old episode of the Tim Ferriss show, number 485 the interview with Jerry Seinfeld. It is absolutely excellent. While he’s funny at times, it’s mostly very thought provoking and substantive. The other one I really enjoyed was number 697 with Rich Paul. Yes you may know him as Adele’s live in love, but he’s a spectacularly successful sports agent in his own right and his personal story is very inspiring and compelling.

That’s all I have for you today. Have a wonderful weekend until next time from my heart to yours.